Dehydrating Food

Last year we invested in a food dehydrator to help us preserve items in season. It's been a lot of fun trying to figure out what dries well and what is worth the effort to dry and save. We use an Oster food dehydrator, nothing fancy. After drying, I usually put the item in the freezer for several days. This kills any bacteria that may have survived the drying process. Don't take any chances eating a dryed item that looks or smells funny. There's lots of good websites that explain dehydrating in detail, so do your research before you give it a try.

Here's a few things we've tried:

Apples - We dried fresh apples from Sky Top in NC. They were cut into 1/4" pieces with skins attached and turned out delicious! Unfortunately they take all day to dry and most were consumed within minutes. I dried about 20 lbs of apples and they were gone within a month.

Strawberries - Dried strawberries are tasty, but a lot of work. They have so much juice, they mostly evaporate and take on a thin leathery texture after they're dried. I've found they're great for adding to my homemade granola.

Mushrooms - Our shiitake logs yielded their first big flush of mushrooms this last fall. Slicing and drying is easy and they reconstitute well. Unfortunately I didn't do an adequate job keeping them dry and they molded. I'll try again in the spring when I get my next crop.

Tomatoes - Making your own sun-dried tomatoes is super easy. I keep a jar of different kinds (yellow, orange, heirloom) that I dried last fall. They keep well.

Herbs - I love cooking with fresh herbs, but it gets expensive to buy fresh all winter long. And I typically use a little and the rest go to waste. So I've begun drying what I don't use. This weekend I planted Peppermint and Lemon Balm to dry and make our own tea!

Far as saving money goes, it's hard to compete with purchasing already dried goods at places like Trader Joes (fruits) or Saigan Market (mushrooms). So I think you only save money doing this if you dry things you grow or purchase in bulk. But all in all, for some things, we've found it very beneficial.